The Liability of the Deaths of Remus and Agrippa - Case Study Example

The Death of Remus
Relevant Facts of the Case
• Romulus decides to “teach Remus a lesson”.
• Romulus decides to teach Remus a lesson by pushing him down the stairs.
• He intends to hurt Remus enough to make him have to take time off work.
• Romulus pushes Remus down the stairs.
• Remus is a hemophiliac and so dies of uncontrolled bleeding in the hospital.

Legal Issues
Did Romulus display both the men's rea and the actus reus for various charges that could be laid against him?
Thus:
1) Did Romulus intentionally push Remus down the stairs?
2) Did he intend to injure Remus by pushing him down the stairs?
3) Did Romulus intend to kill Remus?
4) Can it be found that Romulus negligently and/or recklessly performed an action that led to the death of Remus?
All these issues revolve around the fulcrum of causation.



Relevant Laws
Two types of law will be relevant to this case. The first is the law of murder and the second is that involving manslaughter. The legal analysis that will subsequently occur will essentially decide which of these crimes Romulus should be charged with.
The men's rea for murder is generally regarded as either the intention to kill (R. v. Mathews & Alleyne) or the intent to cause grievous bodily harm (R. v. Woolen, R. v. Moloney, R. v. Hancock & Shankland). For intent, there must have been a clear certainty that either death or grievous bodily harm would occur. The actus reus for murder is the act that is the proximate cause of death.
It is important that at the time of death, the acts must be the operative and most substantial cause of death without any Novus actus interventions (new act breaking in) which broke the cause of causation. There is uncertainty as to actually how such a “new act” is to be defined, as R. v. Smith and R. v. Jordan offer different interpretations.

Legal Analysis
Did Romulus have the men's rea for murder? He did not intend to kill Remus, but pushing someone down the stairs would be regarded as an attempt to cause grievous bodily harm. Any reasonable individual would know that pushing someone down the stairs is likely to seriously injure (if not kill) them, and indeed, Romulus has said that he intended to hurt Remus so much that he would need to take time off work.
The fact that Romulus did not intend for Remus to die is irrelevant as his actions were the proximate cause of the death. He is as much at fault as if he had intended to only hurt Remus, but then Remus died in hospital because of his actions. The “but for” principle applies here. “But for” the actions of Romulus, Remus would not have been injured, thus suffering from fatal internal bleeding because of his hemophiliac condition. Read More